During a satellite broadcast or other transmission, or while interacting with an application, a service may provide supplemental content that includes information regarding one or more items that are seen during the broadcast. The supplemental content may be provided through an interactive display that includes a prompt that allows a user to request information. These supplemental or additional displays may be, for example interactive advertisements. These interactive ads typically are transferred via a dedicated broadcast that is transmitted from a service provider to a receiver. The interactive ad is enabled by an action taken by a user in response to a prompt displayed during the standard broadcast or in another application. This action results in the supplemental content being sent over a broadcast channel. Often, though not necessarily, the supplemental content is provided to the receiver through an alternative channel, such as another transmission channel. Alternatively, the supplemental content may be transmitted on the same channel and accessed when the user accepts or otherwise initiates the trigger. More particularly, the supplemental content and the standard broadcast content are received on different channels. Accordingly, a user-initiated request for further information results in an action at a decoder or tuner to change the received channel.
This method of providing supplemental content has a number of drawbacks. Firstly, many tuners are reset to the alternative channel that provides the supplemental content. Moreover, bandwidth associated with the communication path must be consumed during a broadcast to provide the supplemental content from the service provider to the receiver. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a more efficient and less costly method of delivering supplemental content and prompts for requesting further information.